Sunday, December 28, 2014

Mutterings - Dec 28

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Locked out :: Strike
  2. Hourly :: Rate
  3. Criminal :: Negligence
  4. Seventeen :: Janis Ian
  5. Assistance :: Legal
  6. Closes :: Handbag
  7. Cubicle :: Headphones
  8. I´m just saying :: Lie
  9. Paperless :: Office
  10. In charge :: Management

Sunday, December 21, 2014

Mutterings - Dec 21

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Disappointment :: Despair
  2. Searching :: Wandering
  3. Counters :: Snakes (and ladders)
  4. Snippet :: Paste
  5. Carol :: Concert
  6. Tiresome :: Rage
  7. Booger :: Sniff
  8. Freak show :: Vulnerability
  9. Summarize :: Bullet point
  10. Heartache :: Separation

Saturday, December 20, 2014

A Pennine pub crawl

A bit back now I joined a group doing a rail trip back from Hudderfield via various pubs - this was the report from one of the travellers:
We weren’t de-railed but “beer-railed” on Friday 21 November when eight blokes from All Saints visited five hostelries in Yorkshire. After re-grouping on Piccadilly Station, Manchester, we travelled to Huddersfield where the magnificent station provided a large range of alcoholic drinks and excellent food (not at all fast). Off to Slaithwaite (pronounced “Slouwit”) for a short walk to a friendly local for more beer. Back to the station and next train to Marsden, down-hill to village and pub with brewery attached. More beer (some had very large sausage rolls to assuage their hunger). Back to the station and next train(s) to Greenfield and later Stalybridge for repeat performances. As the rain fell heavily and more and more of us squashed together in the platform shelters with the other groups (about 50 men), on the same pilgrimage, the noise and banter level increased proportionately to the amount of alcohol consumed. Phil met some former colleagues but this paled to insignificance when one of our party admitted (under pressure) to being the father of Jamie Donaldson. This most enjoyable trip ended for most at roughly 9pm and our thanks are due to Phil Marsh for his communication and leadership skills. “We’ll all drink to that!”

Monday, December 15, 2014

Mutterings - Dec 14

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Stuck :: Down
  2. Elevator :: Buttons
  3. Vaccine :: Ebola
  4. Pepsi :: Cherry
  5. Rotund :: Waistline
  6. Wonder :: Awe
  7. Solo :: Hans (that's a little alarming!)
  8. Voodoo :: Pins
  9. Sticky :: Back plastic (Blue Peter's non advertising circumlocution for Sellotape - oh dear I think that'll need translating too!)
  10. Summarize :: Bullet points

Sunday, December 07, 2014

Mutterings - Dec 7

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Fantasy :: Final
  2. Square one :: Chess
  3. Impostors :: Masks
  4. Hydrate :: Test tube
  5. Card :: Christmas
  6. Respects :: Last
  7. Big city :: Manchester
  8. Alert :: Danger
  9. Scrabble :: Domino (the names of our first 2 cats)
  10. Neighborhood :: Friendly

Wednesday, December 03, 2014

Disgrace



Last week, silkscreen showed Disgrace, the film of the J M Coetzee novel. We read this in our book group a few years ago - I can't find any mention of it on this blog. A study of shame, forgiveness and the new South Africa. It's very true to the novel (as far as I can remember!) as it confronts a nation in a state of change. Watching the film will probably lead - for me - to a re-read of the book!

The Cold season

Those who follow me elsewhere may have already picked up the news that I'm working again - out of IT - driving for a local artisan bakers Flour Water Salt - very local to us - 5 mins walk from the house. I get to drive though quiet bits of Cheshire countryside and there's frequent visits to Jodrell Bank. Today was the first really cold day, so here's a photo and a quote from T S Eliot's Little Gidding:
Midwinter spring is its own season
Sempiternal though sodden towards sundown,
Suspended in time, between pole and tropic.
When the short day is brightest, with frost and fire,
The brief sun flames the ice, on pond and ditches,
In windless cold that is the heart’s heat,
Reflecting in a watery mirror
A glare that is blindness in the early afternoon.
And glow more intense than blaze of branch, or brazier,
Stirs the dumb spirit: no wind, but pentecostal fire
In the dark time of the year. Between melting and freezing
The soul’s sap quivers.
Being out in the countryside in this cold, clear light brings life..

Tuesday, December 02, 2014

Teaser Tuesday - Dec 2



Teaser Tuesday

The rules are:
  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
  • You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!
'What earthly use are what-ifs?' she asked, pulling a golden muffin off her long fork and reaching for the honey. 'I was born in the body allotted to me.'
Something warming for a winter evening! From Emma Donoghue 'The Woman who gave birth to rabbits' a collection of fictions which are true. The quoted sentences come from the 'Salvages' tale - a wonderful collection of whacky tales full of entertaining historical detail. This is a re-read for me.

Monday, December 01, 2014

Mutterings - Dec 1

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Smug :: Complacent
  2. Swan :: Song
  3. Ginger :: Nut
  4. Doctor :: Finlay (harking back a bit!)
  5. Handshake :: Masonic
  6. Studies :: Op 42 (Scriabin piano work)
  7. Pond :: Life
  8. Register :: Awareness
  9. Surgery :: Forceps
  10. Compass :: Moral
.. a little late!

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Teaser Tuesday - Nov 25



Teaser Tuesday

The rules are:
  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
  • You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!
I went up and down my tables like a ladder. I made the names of the Kings and Queens of England blaze across my mind like banners: Edward Edward Edward Richard Henry Henry Henry Edward Edward Richard Henry Henry Edward Mary Elisabeth James...
again Helen Dunmore's The Lie - this month's book group book.

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Mutterings - Nov 23

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Seal :: Arf!
  2. Grown up :: Behaviour
  3. Rags :: [to] Riches
  4. Collar:: Feel (what the police do)
  5. Fears :: Tears
  6. Yellow :: Belly
  7. Link :: Missing
  8. Patrol :: Army
  9. Fancy :: Little (of what you...)
  10. Ears :: Big (and Noddy)

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Mutterings - Nov 16

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Drive thru :: Eugh! (sorry!)
  2. Horse power :: Engine
  3. Plates :: Meat (probably the cockney plates of meat lurking there!)
  4. Coffee break :: Chat
  5. Dress :: Sense
  6. Ferrarri :: Red
  7. Bangs :: Hair
  8. Charisma :: Dazzle
  9. Muffler :: November
  10. Crossroads :: Serial (an old TV soap in the UK - I don't think I ever saw it)

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Teaser Tuesday - Nov 11



Teaser Tuesday

The rules are:
  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
  • You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!
I rolled a granite boulder to the head of the grave. I knew how quickly green would cover the turned earth.
Helen Dunmore's The Lie, all very elliptic at the moment, our book group book of the month. No doubt the direction of the tale will get clearer soon?

Sunday, November 09, 2014

Mutterings - Nov 9

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Fencing :: Mending
  2. Mediocre :: Attempt
  3. 19th :: Century
  4. Candy :: Man
  5. Scorch :: Iron
  6. Allergies :: Hayfever
  7. Swirl :: Skirt
  8. Level up :: Game
  9. Modern :: Tate
  10. Tasty :: Treat

Tuesday, November 04, 2014

Teaser Tuesday - Nov 4



Teaser Tuesday

The rules are:
  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
  • You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!
'Did you know that Mr Barber's life was insured with his wife as sole beneficiary?'
The question was like a wire drawn tight at ankle level: it brought her down with a bump.
A final teaser from Sarah Waters 'The Paying Guests' I'm now in the courtroom drama stage of the novel - maybe the different phases are rather taut and enjoyable! Here's my previous tease from the book.

Sunday, November 02, 2014

Mutterings - Nov 2

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Feelings:: Emotions
  2. Bake :: Clam
  3. Corrupt :: Management
  4. Amber :: Insect
  5. Awesome :: View
  6. Peace :: Stillness
  7. Benches :: Alpine
  8. Sultry :: Glances
  9. Choker :: Pearl
  10. Juice :: Grape

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Teaser Tuesday - Oct 28



Teaser Tuesday

The rules are:
  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
  • You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!
When Monte called in for his regular cup of tea in the morning, Tom and Rachel were introduced. He was the double of Harold, although a few stone heavier and with permanent laugh lines etched into his face.
From Peter Lihou's Rachel's Shoe our BATS (book group of the month) - rather too many names in those 2 sentences for a teaser. I wasn't impressed, it felt like teenage fiction (though I suppose there's nothing wrong with that) lots of derring do and a little predictable - having recently watched Edge of Darkness I preferred the rather similar denoument of the TV series.

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Mutterings - Oct 26

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Family :: Nuclear
  2. Leather :: Armchair
  3. Chunky :: Monkey
  4. Shaking :: Fear
  5. Suffering :: Servant
  6. Pockets :: Deep
  7. Loose :: Change
  8. Show :: Girl
  9. Vest :: String
  10. Finale :: Grand

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Mutterings - Oct 19

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Freak :: Out
  2. Thrown out :: Pub
  3. Wedding :: Ceremony
  4. 99 percent :: Whole
  5. Terminal :: Cancer
  6. Culprit :: Thief
  7. Bows :: Struck (I'm with the violins)
  8. Stock :: Beef
  9. Hospital :: Ward
  10. Dodge :: City
Missed a week - we've been away!


Sunday, October 05, 2014

Ginger shortbread

I cooked ginger shortbread yesterday for the during(!) morning service this morning and used a recipe from an old Scargill cookbook:

Ingredients

  • 150g self raising flour
  • 110g margarine
  • 55g sugar
  • 1/2 tsp ginger

  • For icing:
  • 55g margarine
  • 4 tblsp icing sugar
  • 1/2 tsp ginger
  • 1 dessertspoon syrup

Method

Melt margarine and sugar.

Work in flour and ginger.

Bake in swiss roll tin in mod. oven 20-30 min (yesterday I found it was around 20).

Melt ingredients of icing and pour on shortbread while it is hot.

Cut when cold.

The cookies that were also cooked - I'd provide a recipe but my notes have the following as the instructions:
Rub in marg
and the ingredients say 'milk' with no quantity - so we're lucky they turned out well!

Mutterings - Oct 5

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Candle light :: Carols
  2. Kevin :: Bacon
  3. Fireplace :: Stone
  4. Pots :: Pans
  5. Scarf :: Dr Who
  6. Colossal :: Rhodes
  7. Golf :: Ryder (Cup)
  8. Construction :: First (First Construction in Metal is a work by John Cage)
  9. Reason :: Sense
  10. Washington :: State

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Teaser Tuesday - Sept 30



Teaser Tuesday

The rules are:
  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
  • You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!
The salami and olives seemed to have disappeared: inroads had been made into the ciabatta. Mentally he substituted grapes for the sliced oranges with cointreau he had planned. His attention was claimed in a quite other direction.
Taking another sentence to the end of the paragraph - another teaser from our book group book for the month. As with the last teaser - choices!

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Mutterings - Sept 28

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. 20 :: 20
  2. Spark :: (fly) upwards (from the Old Testament book of Job)
  3. Hangnail :: and I
  4. Distant :: Relation
  5. Muffin :: Mule I didn't realise (or had forgotten the BBC had recently revived this)
  6. Compute :: Does not
  7. Bangs :: Explosions
  8. Mattress :: Springs
  9. Tense :: Future
  10. Sarah :: Rachel

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Teaser Tuesday - Sept 23



Teaser Tuesday

The rules are:
  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
  • You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!
After this spectacular and, it seemed, defining reproach he felt he had only two options. One was to cultivate the life of the mind.
Anita Brookner's Strangers - I'm afraid option 2 doesn't appear for quite a few sentences so you'll have to remain teased both to the reproach and his other option! This is our book group of the month which I am, at last, getting down to! Here's Hilary Mantel's review of the book in the Guardian:
Sustained only by grilled sole, the pale repast of the dead, he haunts galleries and museums. Then, in the hopeless cause of cheering himself up, he locks up his gloomy flat and takes off to Venice. .... Each book [of Brookner] is a prayer bead on a string, and each prayer is a secular, circumspect prayer, a prayer and a protest and a charm against encroaching night.

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Mutterings - Sept 21

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Equality :: Justice
  2. Strappy :: Underground (probably via the straps for holding onto)
  3. Kitten :: Sex
  4. Program :: begin (showing my pascal roots!)
  5. Inventory :: List
  6. Choice :: Road less travelled (Frost - though the word choice never appears in that poem and neither do my associations!)
  7. Scuba :: Diving
  8. Purchase :: Order
  9. Promotion :: Value
  10. Organization :: Corporate

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Teaser Tuesday - Sept 16



Teaser Tuesday

The rules are:
  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
  • You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!
Soap left streaks on the black tiles. The first, wet rub was important for loosening the dirt, but it was the second bit that really counted, passing the wrung cloth over the floor in one supple, unbroken movement ... There!
More 1920's detail from Sarah Waters The Paying Guests and oozing with sensuality. Here's a review:
Frances Wray doesn’t know the first thing about being a landlady. The first thing about being a landlady is that under no circumstances should you sleep with your young married female lodger, especially if it’s 1922. But given that Frances is the protagonist of a novel by Sarah Waters, a torrid lesbian affair is perhaps only to be expected. The question in Waters’ new book, The Paying Guests, is just how spectacularly Frances’ decision will lead to disaster—and whether or not she will find a path through the wreckage to the other side.

Sunday, September 14, 2014

An incoherent mumbling of ice-floes

I'm in the midst of reading (very slowly!) Thomas Merton's Journal for 1939-41 and last night I found this sentence:
Then the Archbishop of Canterbury, smiling in his sleep, announces like the incoherent mumbling of ice-floes breaking up in the wastes of the Antarctic, 'You know Russia is gravitating back towards religion. The people will insensibly return to God because they have to.'
Wishful thinking then, wishful thinking by some on the right now. Merton was obviously not a fan of Cosmo Gordon Lang!

Mutterings - Sept 14

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Men :: Women
  2. Partial :: Eclipse
  3. Expenses :: Scandal
  4. Notification :: Popup
  5. Bubble wrap :: Squeezable
  6. Speech :: Direct
  7. Rumble :: West Side Story
  8. Sounds :: Gong
  9. Sweaty :: Wrist band
  10. Mud :: Slide

Sunday, September 07, 2014

Mutterings - Sept 7

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Bubbles :: Squeak
  2. Urges :: Primal
  3. Doorknob :: Broomstick
  4. Insipid :: Stew
  5. Freckles :: Arm
  6. Leafy :: Glade
  7. Volkswagon :: Golf
  8. Scrap :: Metal
  9. Illuminate :: Display
  10. Headboard :: Bed

Tuesday, September 02, 2014

Teaser Tuesday - Sep 2



Teaser Tuesday

The rules are:
  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
  • You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!
It was as if a giant mouth had sucked a bag of boiled sweets and then given the house a lick. The faded carpet in her mother's old bedroom was lost beneath faded pseudo-Persian rugs.
Wonderful imagery and dripping with 1920's detail is Sarah Water's The Paying Guests, you just have this feeling that it is going to end badly!

Sunday, August 31, 2014

Mutterings - Aug 31

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Brownie :: Scout Hut
  2. Randomly :: Walk
  3. Congratulations! :: Card!
  4. Curls :: Lip
  5. Lipstick :: Pink
  6. Memory :: RAM
  7. Tea :: Caddy
  8. Bulletin :: Sheet
  9. Fragrance :: Forgotten (is there a poem somewhere..)
  10. Pace :: Impatient

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Mutterings - August 24

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Burp :: Digestion
  2. Inseparable :: Companions (or typo in its original form ;-)
  3. Flights :: Ash (cloud)
  4. Schedule :: Demands
  5. Bucket :: Ice
  6. Divorce :: D-I-V-O-R-C-E
  7. Office :: Mayor
  8. Tweed :: Jacket (and someone's nickname at school)
  9. Mattress :: Bought (one yesterday!)
  10. Priorities :: Right of way


Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Teaser Tuesday - Aug 19



Teaser Tuesday

The rules are:
  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
  • You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!
The plaque's inside the church. Brian John Edmondson aged 17 and a good swimmer.
from Julie Myerson's Something Might Happen a murder mystery but also a study in grief set in a small Suffolk town (clearly Southwold!) Here's the Guardian review. It's our book group book of the month - not a comfortable read but I think it's going to be a rewarding study. And a wonderful teaser!

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Mutterings - Aug 17

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Chocolate :: Dark
  2. Spike :: Milligan
  3. Puppy :: Affection
  4. Corner :: Shop
  5. Charcoal :: Burner (Swallows and Amazons lurking there i think)
  6. Game :: Chess
  7. 28 :: Perfect
  8. Summitt :: Typo
  9. Tuxedo :: Dinner
  10. Winner :: Plaque

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Mutterings - August 10

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Supervisor :: Guard
  2. Facebook :: Like (maybe!)
  3. Almond :: Essence
  4. Southern :: Cross
  5. Hangnail :: Ouch!
  6. Runner :: Do a
  7. Authentic :: Jean de Florette (saying l'authentique with an appropriate accent!)
  8. Curls :: Golden
  9. Skirt :: Avoid
  10. Detective :: Emil

Sunday, August 03, 2014

Mutterings - Aug 3

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. I think I love :: You
  2. Obsessed :: Angry
  3. Dancers :: before God (I think that's Tippett and the Knot Garden)
  4. Guitar :: Strum
  5. Hurry up! :: Waiting
  6. Thump :: Fist
  7. Conquest:: Norman
  8. Lights :: Harbour
  9. Rose :: thou are sick (Blake), and Taylor-Milton
  10. Birthday :: Party

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Teaser Tuesday - July 29



Teaser Tuesday

The rules are:
  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
  • You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!
The pain of her relationship with Bruno lay in separation - not just in times and distances but sometimes, she felt, in the very fact that they were different beings. Even together they were apart.
From Sebastian Faulks A Possible Life about choices but I'm still unsure what it's really about! I need to re-read and study - for example - this review.

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Mutterings - July 27

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Fish:: Babel
  2. Dreaming :: Floating
  3. Living :: Fighting
  4. Expectations :: Confounding
  5. Mug :: China
  6. Jacket :: Potato
  7. Bowl :: Rice
  8. Confession :: Truth
  9. Socks :: Cat!
  10. Tank :: Trap
I'm just finishing off preparation for taking a service - preaching and prayers this morning - and those first few responses appear to be still in that mode of thinking!

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Mutterings - July 20

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Strong :: Man
  2. Bathing :: Beauty
  3. Title :: Lord
  4. Tick Tock :: Hickery Dock
  5. Dispute :: Employment
  6. Magazine :: Explosion
  7. Stupid! :: Silly!
  8. Safely :: Traverse
  9. Reposition :: Marketing
  10. So wrong :: Wrong-headed

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Mutterings - July 13

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Joke :: Pun
  2. Away :: Manger
  3. Reaction :: Chemical
  4. High :: Kite
  5. Movie :: Frame
  6. Decide :: Meet
  7. Afternoon :: Faun (Debussy)
  8. Contrarian :: Obstinate
  9. Understand :: Sympathise
  10. Zone :: War

Tuesday, July 08, 2014

Teaser Tuesday - July 8



Teaser Tuesday

The rules are:
  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
  • You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!
There was not a drawer or a shelf. There was not a logical place to put a pen, there was no logic to any of it.
A final teaser from Ann Patchett's State of Wonder - exploring someone else's office deep in the Amazonian jungle.

Sunday, July 06, 2014

Mutterings - July 6

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Onion :: Layers
  2. Greek :: Temple
  3. Construct :: Language
  4. Crunch :: Credit
  5. Bottom :: Weaver (Shakespeare!)
  6. Cream :: Scone
  7. Slamming :: Deck
  8. Jerk :: Pork
  9. Closed :: Envelope
  10. Texture :: Hatched

Tuesday, July 01, 2014

Teaser Tuesday - July 1



Teaser Tuesday

The rules are:
  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
  • You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!
An opinion isn't one thing or the other: it is neither science nor faith, but has a little bit of either one. It is a rationalization bolstered up by some orthodoxy which you happen to respect which naturally starves the mind instead of feeding it (and that is what people who have no faith imagine faith does, but they don't know what they are talking about, because faith is a virtue and active habit which cannot even pretend to rationalize anything: it seeks what is beyond reason).
I'm back on Thomas Merton and 'Run to the Mountain' Journals (Volume One 1939-1941).

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Mutterings - June 29

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Delicious :: Menu
  2. Element :: Periodic (Table)
  3. Cohesion :: Stick
  4. Course :: Main
  5. Blister :: Heel
  6. Incomplete :: Definition
  7. Socks :: Cat
  8. Instruction :: Order
  9. Pill :: Dose
  10. Impressive :: Truth

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Teaser Tuesday - June 24



Teaser Tuesday

The rules are:
  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
  • You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!
'Henry, so nice to see you again.' Mr Okabe wore grey flannel pants and a hat that made him look like Cary Grant. Like Keiko, he spoke beautiful English.
Another one from Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. I think this is heading toward the school of Dan Brown.. I spotted this sentence on p 238 'Even though near the end, as wonderful as it sounded, she'd had little appetite.' - the end is a character's death and the 'wonderful' relates to the menu in the previous sentence, it's not the end that is wonderful! I think that's just a little convoluted! What sort of hat does Cary Grant wear?

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Mutterings - June 22

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Closed :: Pass (or the Cat & Fiddle Rd!)
  2. Tourists :: Cameras
  3. Footsteps :: in the snow - the Debussy prelude, here's Michelangeli playing it
  4. Ginger :: Spice
  5. Way :: Roman
  6. Designer :: Handbag
  7. Mattress :: Lumpy
  8. Disaster :: McGonagall
  9. Chips :: Fabrication
  10. Campaign :: Banners

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Teaser Tuesday - June 18



Teaser Tuesday

The rules are:
  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
  • You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!
'I mean they weren't just Chinese, they were super-Chinese, if you know what I mean. They were like ice cubes in America's melting pot, you know - they had one way of doing things.'
Jamie Ford's Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet - our book group book of the month. A tale of the Chinese and Japanese communities in Seattle during World War II and its aftermath. Bit of a breathless style so far, I will see whether I settle into it! (Yes I'm late for Tuesday again!)

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Mutterings - June 15

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Today :: Redhead (Today is a long running BBC radio news programme - Brian Redhead who lived locally presented it for many years)
  2. Lips :: Kissed - and I think this poem of Edna St. Vincent Millay
  3. Seethe :: Anger
  4. Desired :: Afar
  5. Patrol :: Border
  6. Nails :: Cross
  7. Pastry :: Choux
  8. Jacket :: Metal
  9. Button :: Holes
  10. Feel :: Nerves

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Teaser Tuesday - June 10



Teaser Tuesday

The rules are:
  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
  • You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!
He wore a pair of nylon shorts and a green T-shirt that said "World Cup Soccer". ... Logic would dictate that this child would be selling something as well, children were industrious in Manaus: hawking fans and postcards and butterflies in wooden boxes, but his hands were empty.
Cheating slightly - two sentences from near the start of a page but it is my current reading and the conjunction of that, World Cup and Manaus was irresistible! Another teaser from Ann Patchett's State of Wonder -linking back to my previous teaser from this book.

Sunday, June 08, 2014

Mutterings - Jun 8

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Fringe :: Beyond the..
  2. Helicopter :: Rotor
  3. Netflix :: App
  4. Humor :: Cartoon
  5. Niece :: Nephew
  6. Summer :: Lazy
  7. Crazy :: Paving
  8. Arrival :: Birth
  9. Nipple :: Suckle
  10. Code :: Machine

Thursday, June 05, 2014

Machuca - 2 bike rides

Trailer Machuca from Wood Producciones on Vimeo.

Last night we saw Machuca at Macc college, it's a film set in the dying days of Allende's Chile before the military coup. It tells of a friendship between 2 boys one privileged the other from a shanty town. The second is one of a number of boys put in the private school by the Roman Catholic headmaster much to the horror of the parents. It's a growing up story beautifully acted by the young characters, harrowing at times but a real understanding of living it difficult times. I thought the sports field scene was rather lifted from Kes but the scenes on the bike had real power particularly the concentration on the face of Matías Quer (Gonzalo) as he grows up. The film is dedicated to Gerardo Whelan the real life headmaster of a school in Santiago who taught Andrés Wood (the director), here's an interview with him.
I'm afraid the trailer doesn't have subtitles - the initial snippet has Pedro Machuca - the shanty town lad asking Gonzalo if all those shirts are his, the collisions between the cultures are very well done.

Wednesday, June 04, 2014

My journey of faith (so far!)

Earlier this year I was asked to write an article for the church magazine on my journey of faith. Here it is.
I spent my early years in Birkdale on the Lancashire coast, my parents were occasional church attenders and I attended a Congregational (now URC) church there, I still remember being asked into the pulpit aged about 6 as part of a sermon being asked to read something!
As I grew older and busier church was left behind; I first moved to Macclesfield in the 60's when pharmaceutical companies set up there and my father moved with them. Eventually I returned to belief with becoming more independent and thinking around issues of significance, through looking at a meaning beyond ourselves and things like music and the vastness of mountain scenery were instrumental in that; I came to accept the reality of faith and a God I could then name.

After University I spent a few years in computing and then threw that over to join Scargill (a Christian community running holidays and conferences) and possible ordination. Scargill was a time of learning, of seeing me and other Christians values in a very hot house environment. Whilst there I met Beth we married and after a time in Leeds we moved to Macclesfield, we have 2 grown up children.

The last few years have been rather bumpy, events on various levels - family crises, losses of jobs (one very dubious) I'm currently looking around for employment, which in my 60s, has not been easy!

I have tried to follow the call of Christ particularly on justice issues - I was involved as a Traidcraft rep for over 20 years which helped me to think about issues of development and trade. For a number of years I've been a member of Changing Attitude a group which seeks to help the church to think positively about issues of sexuality. Both these calls have cost in terms of commitment and putting my self in difficult positions.

In the last few years I have gained much from the St Michael's contemplative prayer group - being silent in the presence of God and others to allow God to speak rather than a putting of my many concerns and agendas. Silence has its challenge but meeting God there without the defence of words makes me aware of our dependence upon him.

I am a Reader - someone who preaches & takes services. For many years this has been an opportunity to minister but also, I hope, to give time and space for me to hear God's call to me.

I think to draw together these thoughts as I've journeyed I've tried to meet God in the world as it is (and that's usually painful) and to hear His voice even in the noise and challenges we face everyday.
There's been a lot of long term journeys in the above, journeys are messy things it would be nice to arrive! But for the moment I try to find God in the journey, CS Lewis wrote `I believe in Christianity as I believe in the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but by it I see everything else.' Sometimes the messy nature of what's around us may obscure the view but the stops where is it clear and seeing the panorama give me confidence that the journey is worth while.

Sunday, June 01, 2014

Mutterings - June 1

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Travel :: [broadens the] Mind
  2. Glitz :: Glamour
  3. Bark :: Tree
  4. Wicked :: Witch
  5. Fifth :: Amendment (not being an American I have only a sketchy idea what this is!)
  6. Photography :: Darkroom
  7. Yellow :: Belly
  8. Counter :: Shop
  9. Country :: Nation
  10. Speech :: Figure of

Saturday, May 31, 2014

Open Gardens

St Michael's Macclesfield is running an Open Garden event on 5/6 July this year in aid of the `Raising the Roof' fund. As part of that our (well Beth's) garden will be open - you can find the full list of gardens (as a pdf) here. Tickets are available on the day or you can get one from me. The photo is of our garden at the moment, no doubt things will be different in July! Hoping for good weather....

View Open Gardens in a full screen map

Friday, May 30, 2014

Updating Ubuntu

Earlier in the week I got around to updating the desktop to the new release of (K)Ubuntu 14.04 - I run the version using the KDE desktop - though I have lots of the ordinary Ubuntu packages installed too. Around 50 mins from the projected end of update the machine locked up - I was doing various other things at the time on it which may have contributed to this. No response to anything from mouse/keyboard - the sysrq magic keys had no effect either, but I was running an ssh server on the dekstop so I logged in remotely and rebooted.
When it came up again the boot screen appeared to think it was running 14.04 (rather than the previous 13.10) however at the login screen neither keyboard nor mouse got any reaction (and the ssh server wasn't running the machine hadn't registered with the router). I tried re-booting a couple of times with no effect.
I then broke into GRUB (at boot - press down the shift key) and booted the minimal 13.10 install (still there!) and ran the dkpg fix option (I previously tried minimal with 14.04 which again failed) which ran to completion. A reboot then gave me a working system!
Looking at the upgrade log file the last lines of /var/log/dist-upgrade/term.log read as follows:
Setting up openssh-server (1:6.6p1-2ubuntu2) ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/init/ssh.conf ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/pam.d/sshd ...
ssh stop/waiting
ssh start/running, proce
Yes it stops there! I had it down as a problem with the NVIDIA graphics driver, this might suggest something else - I wasn't connected via ssh when I was running the upgrade so it wasn't a a case of the connection dying. Still puzzled but putting this here in case it helps anyone else.
The other problem I found (so far!) is that Ctrl-Space doesn't appear to do anything - I use this key combo a lot - in Emacs. So it was a bit painful, a websearch reveled that ibus was the problem so I ran ibus-setup and stopped that grabbing Ctrl-Space for 'next input method' and assigned it to a different key.
So far everything else appears to work...

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Mutterings - May 25

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Apple :: Tart
  2. Queasy :: Nausea
  3. Cheeks :: Blow
  4. Nostril :: Snort
  5. Tee shirt :: Slogan
  6. Enough :: is Enough (a book about over exploitation of the Earth from the 1970s)
  7. Maybe :: Perhaps
  8. How? :: Paleface
  9. Palace :: Garden
  10. Satellite :: Telstar (shows my age!)

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Teaser Tuesday - May 20



Teaser Tuesday

The rules are:
  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
  • You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!
'I wanted to let you in on something very serious. The pope just phoned me from the Vatican, really pissed off at you.'
from Andrea Camilleri's The Shape of Water - our book group book of the month. An Inspector Montalbano mystery - here's a review. Needless to say that wasn't the Pope....

Monday, May 19, 2014

Mutterings - May 19

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Submit :: Concede
  2. Evidence :: Partial
  3. Investing :: Time
  4. Awkward :: Posture
  5. Body :: Count
  6. Extension :: Plug
  7. Period :: Free (that goes back a long way to school!)
  8. Support :: Bridge
  9. Carried :: St Christopher (that's probably a combination of this and the previous one!)
  10. Anxious :: Nerves

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Teaser Tuesday - May 13



Teaser Tuesday

The rules are:
  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
  • You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!
Oh, Anders! To have been sent off on a mission you were never right for. To be regarded after your death as an error of judgement
I'm in the midst of a re-read of Ann Patchett's State of Wonder. I'm not sure if I hoped that this would be our book group's book of the month - it's on the list we draw randomly from.. but I picked this book up in a charity shop last week and thought I'd enjoy owning/re-reading it. Here's my original teaser, comments and a link to the author talking about it.

Monday, May 12, 2014

Mutterings - May 11

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Warning :: Gale
  2. Resume :: Restart
  3. Meeting :: Business
  4. Squares :: Diamonds
  5. Alternate :: Current
  6. Prison :: Iron Bars (... nor iron bars a cage)
  7. Swamp :: Monster
  8. Games :: Leisure
  9. Months :: Years
  10. Share :: Generosity

Thursday, May 08, 2014

First walk of the summer season


We were the only walkers this evening so cut the walk short but not before a good view across the fields.

Wednesday, May 07, 2014

Teaser Tuesday- May 6



Teaser Tuesday

The rules are:
  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
  • You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!
And a day late...
In the middle of the trip
he picked some ripe lemons
and was throwing them at the water
until the water seemed golden.
And in the middle of the trip,
under the branches of an oak treee
the police came along and took him away.
Another from The Journals of Thomas Merton 'Run to the Mountain' - a bit of a cheat as here Merton is quoting from Lorca's poem The Arrest - Prendimiento de Antoñito el Camborio - here's the whole poem. Difficult in view of the circumstances of Lorca's own death.

Sunday, May 04, 2014

Mutterings - May 4

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Death :: Skeleton
  2. Skirt :: Avoid
  3. Lust :: Pant
  4. You :: Me
  5. Repeat :: Ad Infinitum
  6. Exhaustion :: Mental
  7. Obstruction :: Road Block
  8. Secret :: Squirrel
  9. Shiny :: New
  10. Tell :: William

Saturday, May 03, 2014

Beeston View

This afternoon I reconnoitered a walk I'm hoping to lead later this month up to Nab Head. We climbed out of Bollington and came to this view over the Harrop valley. Pretty close to the view from my room when I was a teenager - though with not so many houses in the foreground!

I used to often walk up Nab Head in the 60's until the foot and mouth epidemic and the path was closed. It was only opened again after a long struggle so seeing the route again was good! It's a steep climb but not as hard as White Nancy!

Hmm that doesn't look a very good link anyone running other browser's or OS's like to comment? Try here to take you to the photo.

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

I voted for Chirac!!

A horrifying confession - but it was the story of the left in 2002 in France when Chirac and Le Pen were the 2 candidates left in the second round.

We went to an OU French association film day on Saturday where we saw 'Le Nom des Gens' - a querying of identity in modern France. It puts various modern French taboos in conjunction - the Holocaust, the Algerian war, race and asks what they mean for modern society, have they assimilated them or just glossed them over. Here's a trailer (no subtitles)and here's a shorter version - with subtitles and more inhibited! We had a few talks which explained some of the complicated cultural references... (just one) Arthur Martin (the name of the male protagonist) would be like being called John Lewis in the UK! The film is neatly set between the 2002 and 2007 French elections.

Teaser Tuesday - 27 April



Teaser Tuesday

The rules are:
  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
  • You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!
"Hey, family? I just want to thank you for not teasing me when I change into shorts the second we get there."
again a teaser from Margot Page's Paradise Imperfect: An American family moves to Costa Rican mountains our book group book of the month!

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Mutterings - April 20

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Steady :: as she goes
  2. Sleep :: Deep
  3. Thumb :: Sketch
  4. Straighten :: Bend
  5. Wake up! :: Alarm! (and the TV cabaret show with Billy Cotton back in the 50's..)
  6. Diminish :: Shrink
  7. Scarred :: Wounds
  8. Horn :: Cape
  9. Pace :: Steady
  10. Correspondence :: Letter

Thursday, April 17, 2014

As Night Falls

The news came though yesterday of the death of the writer Jim Cotter - the composer of numerous liturgies, prayer and a thoughtful speaker. His webite is here. Having just returned from a Maundy Thursday service ending in darkness may this prayer be a memorial.
Through the dark despairing depths and the drought of the desert, through the abyss opened up by our failings and folly, we dare to risk our cry to the living God. For you will not let us escape from our greatest good. In our struggle with you, fierce, fiery Lover, let some new glory be wrought and new and unexpected life come to birth.
From Jim's service for Maundy Thursday from 'Darkness Yielding'

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Teaser Tuesday - April 15



Teaser Tuesday

The rules are:
  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
  • You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!
Was this how it was supposed to be? I had no idea and nothing to compare it to.
from Margot Page's Paradise Imperfect: An American family moves to Costa Rican mountains - our BATS (book group) book of the month. Margot Page is a friend of Dave Mock the vicar of All Saints Macclesfield - but I'm quite enjoying the story of the trip - a family with young children throwing everything up for a year in Central America.

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Mutterings - Apr 13

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Shame :: Disgrace
  2. Business :: Monkey
  3. Cats :: Youtube
  4. Green :: Politics (I'm sure I didn't see the line below.. my mind just works the same as the compiler's!)
  5. Politics :: Influence
  6. Boston :: Tea Party
  7. Healthy :: Fit
  8. Pint :: Pot
  9. Owner :: Occupier
  10. Sorrow :: Child ( I see that See Him a lying on a bed of straw is behind this - though I had to web search for the link!)

Tuesday, April 08, 2014

Teaser Tuesday - April 8



Teaser Tuesday

The rules are:
  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
  • You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!
Then we cross the river, and up the hill between high banks, and high over the road a metal suspension footbridge joins the halves of the estate the road, in its deep cut, divides. A the top of the hill Feltonfleet School [flowery font]
well that's what the text says and you have to imagine it! This is The Journals of Thomas Merton 'Run to the Mountain' the diaries of the Trappist monk. I'm currently in 1939 and deep in Merton's reflection on the start of the war.

Sunday, April 06, 2014

Mutterings - April 6

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Rabbit :: Hat
  2. Judged :: Show
  3. Produce :: Stall
  4. Bank :: River
  5. Standard :: Gold
  6. Mister :: Harris (A Tom Robinson Band number i think)
  7. Tissue :: Sneeze
  8. Summon :: Judge
  9. Selfishly :: Blind
  10. Chatting :: Light

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Mutterings - March 30

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Escape :: Great
  2. Deals :: Shady
  3. Throat :: Deep
  4. Pipe :: Stand
  5. Flood :: Raven
  6. Nose :: Running
  7. Crooked :: Stile
  8. Flashes :: Inspiration
  9. Noisy :: Neighbours
  10. Corrupt :: Power

Sunday, March 23, 2014

All Saints' - new website

A notification for the locals that the All Saints' website has moved and can now be found here

Mutterings - March 23

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Encourage :: Friend
  2. Geography :: Map
  3. Entrance :: Exit
  4. Helicopter :: Blades
  5. Creation :: Flash
  6. Pillars :: Doric
  7. Article :: Definite
  8. Desk :: Hot
  9. Discouraging :: Snipe
  10. Display :: X

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Teaser Tuesday - March 18



Teaser Tuesday

The rules are:
  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
  • You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!
Frau Anderson is a woman in her mid-fifties. It is hard to tell what she really looks like because she is wearing makeup to disguise.
From Anna Funder's Stasiland - a series of stories told by those who lived in the former East Germany under surveillance of the Stasi. This is our book group book of the month and I'm beginning to get into it, bureaucracy gone mad (even after unification)...! Here's a review.

Blinkers

From a post on Ecclesia commenting on 'The(?) Evangelical Group of the General Synod calling for licensed lay people as well as clergy who contract marriages to people of the same sex to be disciplined:
Its letter describes its own perspective as “biblically orthodox” and refers to “the clarity of Scripture and the vision it offers for human flourishing”. Yet interestingly it seems less interested in punishing those who are unjust to the poor, migrants and others who are vulnerable, a matter on which the Bible is a great deal more clear and consistent than on homosexuality and gender identity. Nor does it acknowledge the hazards of being judgmental. Overall there is a notable lack of awareness of the risks of projecting human bias on to God.
Well quite, blinkers to avoid frightening the horses. I'm reminded of a certain Reform fanboy church not to far from here who seem to only focus on a few bits of Christian ethics. I wonder if one of their parishioners still reads here ;-)

The Wave

The last Silkscreen film was The Wave based on the story of a simulation where students are asked to cause pain to someone else but because they're asked by an authority figure - an apparent scientist - it must be ok. This film places the action in a school where the students are undertaking a political studies course where things become rather too real.

I found it very difficult to suspend my disbelief - the group coalescing in less than a week, but maybe I'm sceptical about group think! Or maybe like the students at the start of the film I also think we're beyond than? Here's a review.
I was reminded - at a certain point - of the scene in 'The White Rose' where other students put subversive literature in a university..

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Mutterings - March 16

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Crunch :: Credit
  2. Handle :: Pointer (via a software development link)
  3. Stoned :: Pot
  4. Kettle :: Black (good 2 line link there!)
  5. Worst :: Sausage (oh it isn't wurst!)
  6. Agreement :: Handshake
  7. Keg :: Gunpowder
  8. Legacy :: Application
  9. Gig :: Music
  10. Nails :: 9 inch


Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Teaser Tuesday - March 11



Teaser Tuesday

The rules are:
  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
  • You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!
Incidentally he gave me to understand that Kurtz had been essentially a great musician. 'There was the making of an immense success,' said the man, who was an organist, I believe, with lank gray hair flowing over a greasy coat-collar.
Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness - I've never read this before and wanted to after reading Anne Patchett's State of Wonder about a similar journey into the interior. I found it difficult to get into the Conrad, there's so much that's allusive and interior in it, I think I'll have to reread when I'm paying more attention!
That is a totally random choice of sentences but when I read them I was reminded of Albert Schweitzer another westerner and great musician (organist), theologian.. who lived in Africa for many years.

Sunday, March 09, 2014

Crocus

Crocus by rajmarshall
Crocus, a photo by rajmarshall on Flickr.

It feels like spring is on the way - a view of our garden after lunch today. Another photo here

Mutterings - March 9

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Personal :: Data
  2. Coworker :: Dilbert (and cow-orker)
  3. Sofa :: So-good
  4. Serious :: Expression
  5. Chords :: Plagal (cadence)
  6. Platonic :: Relationship
  7. Jacket :: Smoking
  8. Neck :: Vampire
  9. Scatter :: Cushions!
  10. Nailpolish :: Purple

Wednesday, March 05, 2014

You need to recompile the kernel

I was searching through some old papers this morning and came across a document describing how to set a Linux machine up to retrieve email from freeserve. In amongst the 10 pages (or so) was this gem:
So if you didn't have the dummy interface and didn't have ethernet (fairly common in those modem based days) you needed to recompile the linux kernel to enable it. I sign of how far things have moved since then! It then goes into the gory details of sendmail....

Tuesday, March 04, 2014

Teaser Tuesday - March 4



Teaser Tuesday

The rules are:
  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
  • You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!
Yet I knew, as I stood there, that I had, in loving Etna, touched something extraordinary in myself. It was the one occupation that had engaged all of me: my senses, my intellect and my emotions.
Anita Shreve's All He Ever Wanted our book group book of last month. I started this with a particular image of what I thought it was likely to be like 'chick lit' and was pleasantly surprised, though it is an uncomfortable read - a pompous, egotistical man's view of a marriage back in the early years of the 20th century. (Etna is the name of his wife!).
I'm not doing well at tuesday teasers (or blogging) at the moment, let's hope things improve and I find some impetus!

Sunday, March 02, 2014

Mutterings - March 2

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Get back :: Beware
  2. Kids :: Teacher (there's a Pink Floyd association hovering around this and the above!)
  3. Plus :: Bonus
  4. Tamborine :: Sleigh Bells
  5. Thursdays :: Chesterton (The Man who was...)
  6. Hems :: Cough
  7. Busted :: Drugs
  8. Polo :: Water
  9. Discount :: Store
  10. Balanced :: Budget

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Mutterings - Feb 23

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. White House :: Log Cabin
  2. Coffee break :: Biscuits!
  3. Retirement :: Pension
  4. Lipstick :: Red
  5. Department :: Store
  6. Blinds :: Venetian
  7. Diploma :: Piano
  8. Communication :: Line
  9. Budget :: Project
  10. Things :: aint wot they used to be!

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Teaser Tusday - Feb 18



Teaser Tuesday

The rules are:
  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
  • You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!
A neon poodle prances across its sign for all eternity. It wears a little doggie bow tie.
Another teaser from David Mitchell's Number9Dream - I've nearly finished this now and I'm not sure that it's getting any clearer! First teaser of February - I've not been remembering! The poodle is, presumably, an illuminated street sign.

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Mutterings - Feb 16

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Wine :: Bottle
  2. Cooperate :: Partnership
  3. Dropped :: Brush (no idea - maybe the next line?!)
  4. Painter :: Easel
  5. Binger :: Bonger (what's a binger?)
  6. Knot :: Reef
  7. Collar :: Clerical
  8. Barefoot :: Trek
  9. Town :: Gown
  10. House :: Home

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Monsieur Lazhar

Silkscreen showed Monsieur Lazhar last week - similar in styl to 'Etre et Avoir' from the point of view of primary schoolchildren - but here dealing with the death of a teacher and their handling of the emotional trauma with a new rather unconventional M Lazhar. A very powerful film which engages with wonderful performances by the children and you gradually realise that the pain of the children and the new teacher are one. Here's a review.

Nigeria and Anglican Mainstream

I was looking through some old blog entries here and came across this from 2007 when I quote a letter to the Church times from Anglican Mainstream about legislation against homosexuality in Nigeria:
Anglican leaders in Nigeria have been working closely to uphold human-rights issues in the proposed legislation on homosexuality.
I wonder how that's going? As you probably know that law has recently come into effect and Anglican Mainstream have been somewhat silent on the issue.

Sunday, February 09, 2014

Mutterings - Feb 9

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Person :: Individual
  2. Children :: of God
  3. Tweet :: Succinct
  4. Points :: Railway
  5. Grill :: Barbeque
  6. Traces :: Remains
  7. Unsolved :: Mystery
  8. Lines :: in the sand
  9. Fourteen :: Quatorze (and thence Louis!)
  10. Coincidence:: Funny

Sunday, February 02, 2014

Mutterings - Feb 2

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Doorknob :: Broomstick
  2. Arch :: Bridge
  3. Clay :: Pot
  4. Doves :: Flock
  5. Bloom :: Bialistock
  6. Curious :: Feature
  7. Kissing :: Gate
  8. Stomach :: Churn
  9. Courtyard :: Paving
  10. Shorts :: ..to ground

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Teaser Tuesday - Jan 28



Teaser Tuesday

The rules are:
  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
  • You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!
I know that eye. It gleams, and the animal sidles away with a twitch of its tail.
David Mitchell's number9dream. I'm still early on in this book and at least there's some narrative I can get hold of! The first chapter left me struggling (well 15 pages in I was lost!)! Here's the Guardian review which might give a few pointers..

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Mutterings - Jan 26

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:
  1. Vex :: Annoy
  2. Ghost :: (in the) Machine
  3. Detail :: Fuss
  4. Furthers :: Aims
  5. Foxy :: Lady
  6. Hybrid :: Breed
  7. Maximum :: Temperature
  8. Wonderful :: Life
  9. Munch :: Scream!
  10. Organize :: Chaos


Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Teaser Tuesday - Jan 21



Teaser Tuesday

The rules are:
  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
  • You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!
The true story we remembered at Any Virsries was only part of what had been handed down to us from the beginning. There were some things that Angela told to just two of her daughters, Susie and Clare, the ones she thought most sensible and grown up, and told them to pass on only to girls that they knew they could trust.
Another teaser from Chris Beckett's Dark Eden, a careful entrusting of tribal history. Though there's also the preserving of unknown, slightly garbled, significant events!